To take a single step beyond the text would be to take possession of a boundless field of power.

It is an encouraging observation that no good measure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end.

It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason.

Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.

While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work [Plato's Republic], I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?

I apprehend... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse.